Peter Greenwald helped to found the Division of Cancer Prevention at the National Cancer Institute in 1981, and shaped its research until his retirement in 2011. Greenwald’s oral histories have been rigorously recorded by NCI, NIH, and FDA. In five interviews—included three original audio recordings—Greenwald discusses cancer prevention, nutritional science, chemoprevention, community oncology, his career, and life at NIH during his tenure.
In a series of three interviews in 2008, as part of the Division of Cancer Prevention Oral History Project, Greenwald delves into his personal background and his career at NCI. Summaries of these interviews, as well as their corresponding audio recordings, are available below.
Greenwald is a renowned expert on nutritional science, and his Aug. 26, 2009 interview, recorded by FDA, focuses on his involvement in the controversy regarding nutritional health claims on food labels that erupted in 1984. Greenwald’s team researched dietary fiber, which provided him insight to advise the FDA in its development of guidelines for health claims as well as efforts to update standard food identities. This oral history is discussed in depth in The Cancer Letter, and was part of an archive deleted by the Trump administration.
A 2023 interview, conducted by NIH, documents his time living on the NIH campus in the Public Health Service officer housing neighborhood known as “The Station.”
All transcripts and documents are available for download below.
Biographical statement
This biographical statement was included on Greenwald’s Oct. 17, 2008 oral history transcript.
In 1981 Peter Greenwald, M.D., Dr. P.H., created the Division of Cancer Prevention (DCP) at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), in Bethesda, MD, and had led its activities for more than three decades as division director. A native of Newburgh, New York, Dr. Greenwald attended Colgate University, where he received a degree in chemistry and physics. After earning a Medical Doctorate from Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse in 1961, Dr. Greenwald interned at Los Angeles County Hospital. In order to fulfill his draft obligations, he joined the Public Health Service in 1962 at the Communicable Disease Center in Atlanta (now the Center for Disease Control and Prevention). Dr. Greenwald completed a residency at Boston City Hospital in 1964 and then earned a Masters in Public Health and Doctorate of Public Health in Cancer Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health. Before joining the Division of Cancer Prevention and Control in 1981, he served as the Director of the Division of Epidemiology of the New York State Health Department.
After becoming Director of the Division of Cancer Prevention and Control, Dr. Greenwald proactively set specific goals and guidelines in order to significantly reduce cancer incidence and mortality. While reorganizing the Division, Dr. Greenwald also served as Editor in Chief of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute from 1981 to 1987. While at the Division of Cancer Prevention, he has promoted, among other things, the development of Tobacco Control Programs, Chemoprevention Agents, a Community-Based Clinical Oncology Program, large scale Chemoprevention and Early Detection Clinical Trials, and the expansion of the cancer prevention and control public health infrastructure.
Shortly after his appointment to head the newly reorganized DCP in 1997, Dr. Greenwald received the Outstanding Research Award from the American Institute for Cancer Research and the Distinguished Service Award from the American Cancer Society.
